My Blog

Retirement. Publishers, thank you for the many years of reading pleasure you gave me, but all good things must come to an end. Due to failing eyesight I am forced to retire. I can no longer review your books, and any that you send will be donated to the local library, unread. Do not send any more. I can only read for a couple hours every day, and this does not allow me to finish a book in reasonable time. I will be devoting time to my own books from now on, and reading on a personal level. Books that interest me. I prefer paperbacks and hardbacks, not eBooks. My eyesight has been failing the last few years, and I cannot handle hundreds of review books any more. My books are still available for review. Anyone interested in reviewing any of them, they are found in the Link to Tom’s Books On Amazon. Contact me for pdf copies at fadingshadows40@gmail.com

Sunday, February 28, 2016

A year after his encounter with the Bakzen, Wil is still
grappling with his upcoming role in the war. Weighed down by his sense of duty
and a grim vision of his fate, he has withdrawn from friends and
family—focusing only on his official assignments. However, Wil finds unexpected
support when he befriends a new TSS trainee from Earth, Saera. Through their
budding relationship, Wil comes to terms with the purpose he was born to
fulfill and gains comfort in the knowledge that he won't have to face the
future alone.

With a sweet romance, coming-of-age, and a dash of
adventure, this novel follows Wil as he completes his training to become the
youngest and most powerful Agent the TSS has ever known.

Bonds of Resolve (SF)

“Cadicle #3”

BDL Press

ISBN #978-0692589147

Price $11.99 Paperback

$2.99 Kindle

300 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“Topnotch Author And Fantastic Series.”

In book #3 of the Cadicle series, young Wil Sights is in
training for Junior Agent and preparing for his Internship graduation, but the
Priesthood and the Tararian Selective Service have more plans for the
16-year-old. They are rushing him forward towards his final tests to see how
powerful his telekinetic energy really is. He has been bred for this role,
chosen in stealth by the Priesthood through secret maneuvers within his
bloodline. Now a young woman, Saera Alexander, has connected with him, and he
may want to rebel if she isn’t on his side.

This third entry is every bit as fascinating as the first two
novels. I must admit to a couple of problems I thought I had detected, but felt
the author was going to explain these away eventually, and I was right. One
problem I had was with the social technology. Here we are millions of years in
the future, yet people use tablets, handhelds, and send emails. This is today’s
technology, not for a highly advanced civilization that may only need their
minds to communicate. But we read this conversation between a trainee and
instructor:

”So, Taran civilization is tens of thousands of years
old, right?”

“More like millions.”

“All right, even better. So why isn’t this millions of
years old civilization more advanced?”

“It’s pretty advanced.”

“Like there’s the gravity manipulation and subspace
travel, but you’re still entering things by hand on touch-panels and using what
is essentially a smartphone.”

We’re told that there was a collapse of civilization
1000 years before, and we basically had to relearn everything from scratch.
Plus, the old adage of what goes around comes around again. Thus, it seems that
the current technology has come back around. Okay, I’ll buy that, for now.

The second thing that has bothered me is the lack of
women in real leadership and active roles. It appears to be a man’s world. Yes,
women train in the TSS, and become instructors, and given positions. But no
real active roles besides a doctor that appears once a book, or someone in
another position we hear about once in a while. Women’s roles are reduced to
mother and wives and girlfriends. With the introduction of Saera, I’m hoping this will change, and we have women in
leadership and present for active parts.

Each novel is a story of its own, but I would suggest starting
with the first, and reading the series in order. But for a good read, I highly
recommend this book and series for SF readers.

Friday, February 26, 2016

Darcy Leech was born on Blytheville
Air Force Base in Arkansas to a mother harboring a hidden genetic disease that
would forever shift the family life when Dustin, Darcy’s younger brother, came
into the world with congenital myotonic muscular dystrophy. Before meeting her
brother, Darcy was told she would live longer than he did and matured quickly
as a child living amid medical crisis.

She graduated summa cum laude from
Bethany College with majors in English Education and Philosophy, married the
love her life and settled into her home town in the middle of the golden wheat
fields of Kansas where she has served 8 years as an educator. Darcy is a four
year all conference college athlete, A.O. Duer national award winner, published
nationally in Quest Magazine, and a Lana Jordan Aspiring Artist Grant winner.

She gave birth to her first son, Eli,
three months before her mother’s degenerative muscle disease took Jo Lyn’s ability
to breathe. Jo Lyn was to be Eli’s caretaker when Darcy returned to work, but
instead, Jo Lyn fed Eli a bottle in her hospital bed while she was hooked to
ventilator. Jo Lyn is the strongest woman Darcy will ever know, andFrom My Mother candidly recounts
the love and struggles in a family with a special needs boy and a hardy young
girl raised with compassion, fortitude and grace while facing death with a
terminal disease.

PULP DEN: Please give me a blurb for your
book.

Riveting, soulful, and courageously
told, From My Mother is
a meditation on grief, family, genetic disease and also a deeply personal
account of the narrator’s coming-of-age amid medical crisis and tragedy to
carry on the lessons from her mother to raise her young son. A story of loss,From My Mother is
full of life, a story of beginnings as much as endings, a moving book that
transforms suffering into art and inspiration. Darcy Leech was born to Jo Lyn
Bartz, a mother who carried myotonic muscular dystrophy, a disease 1 in 8500
suffer from. Jo Lyn’s son, Dustin Ryan Bartz, was born with congenital muscular
dystrophy with a high enough frequency of protein repeat mutations that of his
13 years of life, every day defied prior medical knowledge. Leech narrates a
moving meditation of the enduring mysteries of what dormant harbingers of
genetic disease may lurk within, the surprising possibilities in loss, and the
deep resilience of the human spirit as the bod­y weakens.

The narrative highlights the
relationship between diseased mother and healthy daughter, revealing Jo Lyn as
a woman of strength, a caretaker who quietly marched toward her own
degenerative weakness, someone grappling for identity while ostracized by an
invisible disease, and a resilient spirit who endured holding the child who
inherited her genetic misfortune as he took his last breath. From My
Mother is the honest story of finding joy through loss, living fully
within limitations, and the universal struggle of grappling for identity
against the device of innate genetic code through invested love and personal
choice.From My Mother leaves the reader
pondering the value of genetic testing, the beauty in a disease easy to accept
as genetic fault, and the heart wrenching question of when life should be
sustained by machine or ended by choice.

PULP DEN: Why did you write
From My Mother?

I
wrote From My Mother first as a
process to heal after losing my mother to respiratory failure caused by her
genetic disease, myotonic muscular dystrophy. While writing was cathartic for
me, I knew there were others like my family out there, more women like me
grieving the loss of a parent, wondering how to raise her child well. There are
women like my mother who feel alone, that no one understands their rare disease
and its silent effects. From My Mother
is a true story which needs to be told. As technology advances, more and more
people will have to make choices about life support, or have a child who
wouldn’t have survived years ago and has a complicated prognosis. More descendants
will live as caretakers for their parents or watch their parents die after a
long hospital stay. Those feelings are complex. I’m hoping reading the honest
revelations of a rare but relatable story means something to those walking
similar paths. There are readers out there who need From My Mother. I wrote to reach them.

PULP
DEN: How do you market your books?

My job as an instructional technology coach helps me
acquire skills to conquer promotion and marketing in the social media era. I have a professional
designed website, an active blog, a growing social media presence and connections
with key organizations tied to the target audiences of my book. I have a Kindle
Unlimited subscription and made it a goal to read one book a week on marketing
or promotion for my book. If I had to sum up my marketing plan in one sentence,
I’d say I market resourcefully with a high degree of technology knowledge, a
deep social network, and connections with groups and people with a high return
on my energy investment because I know they are people like me in ways who will
relate.

PULP DEN: What was the hardest thing about writing this
book?

Writing
From My Mother was a healing process. The hardest part was writing
through the tears to have coherent organization and clear details. Revisions
were calmer writing time than the first draft. Allowing the emotions to linger
in my mind to write let out some feelings I repressed by keeping busy with other
things. It was cathartic, but catharsis doesn’t come without struggle.

PULP DEN: What do you do to get book reviews?

I
found beta readers via interest groups linked to concepts in themes in the
book. I would link a blog post written towards an audience like those in families
affected by a terminal, incurable disease like in the book and if someone said
“I can’t wait to read your book!” in response, I’d ask him or her if he or she
would be interested in an Advanced Reader Copy. All I asked in return was a
written review on Goodreads. My early reviews from this method were in an exact
target audience for the book from people who already had indicated a positive
view of the book. I’m going to market with some strong written reviews on Goodreads. My blog and social media connections, which are honest
and caring friendships made with people like me, help me find readers willing
to do me the favor of writing a review.

PULP DEN: How successful has your quest for reviews been
so far?

In
small number, great. However, I would like to expand the scope and frequency of
the reviews. Being connected to a reader network would be great.

PULP DEN: If your book were made into a movie, whom would you cast?

Emma Watson playing me as
the narrator would be delightful. (This is budget free daydreaming, right?)
Angelina Jolie would understand the threat of deadly genetic disease. Before
the disease started affecting the strength of my mother’s facial muscles or her
ability to exercise, she would have resembled Jolie. Robert Downy Jr. would by
play my father and it would be his most touching role yet, reminiscent of Robin
Williams in Patch Adams. My brother would have to be played by a child actor
with congenital myotonic dystrophy. I don’t know any other way the directors
could capture that face and body movements…

PULP DEN: Who is your favorite fictional character and why?

Owen Meany in A
Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving – Owen is like the voice I hope to
give my brother though my writing. He looks and speaks differently and has a
shorter projected life span than his narrator friend, John. Owen Meany stands out from
those around him not just because of the way he was born, but how he thinks and
acts. Owen is a genius, a gifted writer, wise beyond his years, a loyal friend,
and in ways a typical angsty teenager. My favorite part of Owen, though, is how
his unshakable faith in a divine creator shapes his world view and leads him to
his tragic yet beautiful fate. Owen is special, and I’m attracted to the
paradox of fortune and misfortune in his grateful worldview which allows him to
believe he is the way he was meant to be and that things happen for a reason.

PULP DEN: If there was one thing you could do to change the world,
what would it be?

Everyone would spend more
time reading well-written true life stories for edification and enjoyment. One
of our best ways to learn is in books, and I think entertainment that is not
edifying occupies too many timetables which would be better served by true and
worthwhile lessons a good memoir can offer, whether physical or digital.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Mike Johnson, the original Apparition got careless and in
old age was gunned down. His granddaughter, Alicia, was helping him walk when
mobsters gunned him down and shattered her spine with bullets, and now she must
live in a wheelchair. In the meantime, billionaire Bryan Sloane killed David
Stryker’s son in a fistfight, and the mob boss wants him dead. With the strange
return of The Apparition, and new attacks on Stryker’s minions, the police
suspect Sloane may be the new vigilante.

Okay, this short novelette had a lot happening, but not
enough time to really build the characters. Plot twists, along with character
twists, will keep the reader guessing just who The Apparition really is – until
the final pages, of course. You won’t go away disappointed, just wanting more
stories, and longer ones. Highly recommended for lovers of pulpy fiction with
an over-the-top crime fighter.